3/23/11

HR235 has just been voted out of the subcommitte Friday the 25th March 2011. It needs to crossover into the Senate by March 28 (no sessions this weekend which mean a vote on Monday the 28th.) Then go to the Judicial Proceedings Committee for a vote and to the floor of the Senate for a floor vote by the April 11th.

It is also reported that there are some amendments to the bill not yet annotated on the bills official page. It is presumed these changes are going to be added to appease legislators not yet committed and not the Maryland transgender community represented by Transmaryland and Trans-United or local journalists who have voiced loud objections to the removal of public accommodations provisions

Dana LaRocca, a Maryland transgender woman sums it up nicely;

"HB235’s omission of public accommodations is a flaw that will not easily be remedied in the future. All previous anti discrimination bills have included public accommodations protections and that omission in this bill will in the future be seen as a legislative intent to create a second class of citizenship for transgender Marylanders. I understand that it is considered an easier bill to win in its current form. The transgender community is not interested in an easy win. We are interested in justice. By denying equal access to public accommodations HB235 denies the dignity of an entire class of persons."

"Out of respect for the dignity of human persons HB235 must be rejected and we must not consider such legislation until such time that it includes the same protections for transgender persons as the law does for all other classes of citizens. We are all entitled to the same goods inherent in social practice. That is what social justice means."